


Escalating

by jeweledsong



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Kissing, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-01
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2018-01-14 04:05:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1252120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeweledsong/pseuds/jeweledsong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It starts out as cover, or at least the excuse they use is that it's for cover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Escalating

It starts in a mall, on an escalator. The Winter Soldier, his goddamn best friend who isn’t dead, is looking for them. There are a lot of ways to fool facial recognition software, Steve has learned, but the best way to fool a person is to hide your face entirely. She’s covered that red hair of hers with a hoodie and he’s wearing a ball cap, but that isn’t going to be enough for the Soviet assassin on their trail. Natasha starts it. Of course she does. But Steve isn’t dumb. He figures out the plan as soon as her hand is soft on his neck, and leans down as she leans up. The kiss is cool, and dry, and chaste. For a fraction of a second. Then her grip tightens, just enough, and he reaches for her almost on instinct. Kissing’s always come naturally to Steve, and he does what he can to make it look real. He doesn’t have to act much. If she’s acting, he can’t tell. He’s not surprised. He slides his hand along her ribcage, softening his mouth on hers. She leans in just a little more, sighing inaudibly.  
Then the back of his shoe is shoved forward suddenly and he stumbles backwards, recovering with an awkward little hop. Natasha, of course, steps off onto the second floor the picture of grace. He laughs and gives her his best grin. Nobody seems to mind them, just a handsome couple out shopping together. He reaches for her hand and she lets him take it the rest of the way through the mall. It’s just better cover, he tells himself.

Bucky’s still on the loose when it happens again. They’re playing tourist on the Mall, watching from different angles. Steve buys two ice cream cones, telling the woman running the cart that his sweetheart’s gone off taking pictures. She smiles at him and tells him to find her before the ice cream melts. He’s not lying. Well, he is. Natasha is taking pictures, but not of landmarks and not with a conventional camera. And she’s not his sweetheart. His vanilla-chocolate swirl is almost gone by the time he finds her. “Got you something,” he says, handing her the strawberry cone. “Aren’t you a cutie?” she says, and again, he can’t find her tells. He’s scanning her six, the way he’s been doing all afternoon, and tenses at an almost-familiar figure. The man turns briefly, and Steve moves before his conscious mind has registered the face. It’s Bucky, and he can’t know they’re here yet, and Steve tilts and ducks his head and finds Natasha’s lips for cover all in one motion. She goes with it, licking a bit of ice cream from the corner of his mouth. When Bucky has turned the corner and vanished back into the crowd, Steve relaxes into the kiss as a signal. Or in relief. Either way, she pushes him away playfully and laughs. “Eat your own ice cream. This one’s mine.” “You’re one to talk!” They finish their reconnaissance together, and if Steve enjoys the sunshine and the pretty dame, that’s his business.

The third time Bucky has nothing to do with it. Someone is robbing a bank, and they’ve taken a bunch of hostages. Including the Black Widow. Amateurs. Natasha could stop them in a heartbeat, but she’s bored today. Instead she flings herself at their captors.   
“No, stop, you have to let us go!” She’s shoved back. “Captain America will save us!” She’s overdramatic and almost campy, but the rest of the crowd starts to back her up. ‘Yeah, you can’t do this in Cap’s city.” “Back off.” The robbers pull truncheons and nightsticks; melee weapons. Getting their attention would have been a bad move if Natasha hadn’t been on comms the entire time. She can almost hear the dramatic horn flourish as Captain America runs up the bank’s marble steps and smashes through the glass front doors. “Halt, evildoers!” Steve is clearly as bored as she is. “Lay down your weapons and let these people go!” It’s the black SHIELD SUVs pulling up, enforcing Cap’s dramatic entrance and releasing a handful of agents, that get the robbers to surrender. Natasha runs across the lobby and throws herself into Steve’s arms. “You saved us!” He uses her momentum to spin them into a dip, supporting her back with his shield arm and slinging his right arm around her shoulders. “I stand for freedom, ma’am. I’m just doing my job.” She pulls him into a kiss right when the cameras go off, managing to end up on the front page of the paper without showing her face. He catches a ride with one of the agents and she blends back into the crowd of hostages. When they meet back up in Stark Tower, neither of them can stop laughing. If Steve’s blushing extra hard, that’s why. She’s almost sure of it.

“I’d like, very much, to kiss you without any agents, or cameras, or assassins nearby.” He takes a breath, though he finds he isn’t nervous. She’s perched on the counter, eating ice cream from the carton, putting her just slightly above him. He reaches up, setting his hand on her shoulder, and waits for her move. She makes a production of finishing her spoonful of honey-bleu cheese ice cream, setting the carton and cutlery aside. “I don’t think you’re going to have much luck with that at Stark Tower.” She’s smiling, though, and she shifts forward across the kitchen island. They meet halfway in a kiss that leaves super-soldier Steve dizzy from lack of oxygen. She makes a little sound, a gasp or perhaps a moan, and he knows this time it’s real. He stands and steps into the vee of her legs, settling his hands on her back. She runs her hands over his chest, wrapping them in the fabric of his shirt, pulling him closer. They kiss and kiss. No acting, no pretense, no eyes open for the mission or the target. His only goal is to taste her, to feel her against him and lose himself in the honesty of the moment. Her hands are on his face, his neck, in his hair, along his shoulders. His mouth is on hers, their lips touching, parting, tilting, sliding, connecting. He could kiss her like this for hours.  
Which is when JARVIS clears his digital throat and announces “Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts are heading this way for lunch. Agent Romanoff’s suite will be easily accessible before the elevator delay protocols are noticed.” The door furthest from the lobby slides open quietly. Natasha takes Steve’s hands, thanks JARVIS, and walks backward across the kitchen, pulling him with her. Her smile is the most beautiful thing he’s seen in seventy years.


End file.
